Benchmarks: Integrating affective and interpersonal circles with the Big-Five personality factors.

Previous research on the Big Five personality factors has not accounted for trait variables interstitial to the factor poles. To better integrate interstitial variables with the Big Five and to provide a framework for reconciling variant versions of the 5 factors, 636 self- and peer ratings using a set of 394 trait adjectives were analyzed. Pairings of 3 factors (I, II, and IV) showed a markedly large incidence of interstitial variables. These 3 factors, referencing affective and interpersonal traits, formed a 3-dimensional space. Adjective clusters defining both factor-univocal and interstitial benchmark positions in this space were developed. The 3 circles defined by the clusters showed appropriate circumplex characteristics when examined in an independent sample of 205 peer ratings. Two of these circles corresponded to the affective and interpersonal circles defined by personality research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)